The Watchmen - What if
by Bourguit
Summary: What if after the world begins to recover from the global explosions, Laurie is looking for her mother who is suddenly missing? Only to find her in an underground fighting ring as her younger self and she won't give up the new life that her fans provided without a fight. (Picture provided by Annisse from )
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – The Hunt

Laurie creeps along a dark corridor under the abandoned warehouse that took her a week to find after bribing a few streetwalkers. Dan's throwaway spare glasses help to find her way around easier than the dim ceiling lights can.

Although it's strange, she's glad that the smells of vomit and piss have been replaced by beer and popcorn as she approaches a bright light at the end of the hallway, hearing loud murmuring of a crowd of people.

She turns off the night vision affect off the glasses but suddenly a large, firm hand on her right soldier makes her body tense.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?" After she's spun around, she sees a large but fat security guard looking her up and down lustfully at the obvious features being shown from wearing her Silk Spectre costume. "Hey baby, what's your name," he asks with a grin.

She kicks the guard's pudgy stomach, grabs and twists his right arm, and slams him into the wall. "Sandra Hollis."

As she drags his unconscious body into the shadows, she laughs at the situation. Sandra Hollis is a name she uses for pushy guys along with her favorite restaurant's telephone number.

An announcer's voice get's Laurie's attention when he yells, "Gentlemen! Here's is the fight you've been waiting for! Are you ready for the final fight?"

The echo of the crowd's roar makes Laurie's heart's jump. She slowly hugs the wall, quickly making her way to the end of the hallway, and peaks out. She sees a large center stage on the lower level, surrounded by a stadium of men in business suits being served food and drinks by women in skimpier outfits than hers. She looks up briefly and sees large vents are keeping the area cool and ventilated.

She sees that she's on the last level of the stadium seats and on the same level as the announcer; he's a young man with a receding hairline with an amazing entertaining and likable voice.

She watches as the announcer yells on his microphone, "Our challenger…the unstoppable bull…Olga the Amazon!"

Laurie sees a large, blonde, muscular woman in a leopard outfit and leather boots walk out a hallway from the fighting ring floor. She's is mostly booed and hated by the crowd, Olga welcomes it. Olga curses at the crowd and flips them the bird.

"What the hell is going on," Laurie asks herself.

Before she could try to put any ideas together, booming music is played and a multi-colored light show starts. Laurie takes a step back as the crowd gets to their feet and clap excitedly with a sudden burst of enthusiasm.

The announcer yells smiling, "And now…our champion!"

The middle of the ring opens and Laurie sees some men in the crowd start to whistle.

The announcer continues, "Lady Justice herself…you love her and she loves you back…the original…Silk Spectre!"

"What?" Laurie walks into the light, not caring if she's spotted. She has to get a clear look.

Laurie's jaw drops as her mother plays to the cheering crowd as she's being raised on a metal stand, spinning around in a perfect copy of her original Silk Spectre costume.

As Laurie makes her way through the crowd, she takes off the glasses. Her vision has to be completely clear, because what she sees next she doesn't believe. As her mother raises her hands in the air with welcome, her smile wide and electric, she's also twenty-seven-years-old. Her body is slim and firm, Laurie is guessing her mother is around one hundred and twenty-five pounds.

And her mother's red hair is without a grey hair and it's perfectly pinned and rolled in the classic bombshell hairstyle Laurie's ever seen in newspaper clippings and magazines about her mother. Although it is a little off putting, Laurie hasn't seen her mother so happy in a long time.

"Hello boys," Sally yells with glee as the stand stops.

Laurie drops the glasses, runs past the announcer, flips over the announcer, and jumps down unto the fighting ring.

The announcer says, "What the…"

Laurie has to find out for sure, maybe they did something to her or maybe it's someone else. But she has to know for sure. As she approaches, her mother flips off the stand with ease before it lowers back down and the floor closes up. Her mother continues to play to the crowd. Laurie grins impressed.

"Hey!" Olga stands in front of Laurie like a wall of muscle and stops her in her tracks. Then she gets in Laurie's face, yelling, "This is my fight!"

"Shut up." Laurie knocks her out easily with one punch to the face; wall of muscle, glass jaw.

"Laurie!" Laurie turns around and is immediately hugged tightly by her mother as she whispers angrily, "What the hell are you doing here? I told you in my letter not to look for me. You never listen."

Laurie hugs her back, she's sure it's her. If it wasn't for the indignation in her mother's voice it would have been the brand perfume that only her mother and older women still buys.

"Mother, what the hell is going on?"

Sally pulls away. "I hate it when you call me that."

As the light show and the music are turned off, the announcer asks, "Sally is everything ok?"

Sally raises her hand and yells, "We're good, give me a minute!"

Laurie isn't surprised that her mother is on a first name basis with everyone. "How is this possible?" Laurie briefly touches Sally's face with amazement, especially when she grins widely with a perfect set of white teeth.

Sally models, spinning around. "Va-va-voom." Sally laughs lightly.

"I can't get over it." Laurie resumes touching her mother's young and firm face.

Sally pulls Laure's hand off and holds it as bay. "Don't be disappointed in me…but I had to…"

"How?"

"There's a new serum that reverses aging, but it costs millions to make per dose. But my fans from the old days picked up the bill, just…"

"To see you fight other women at their leisure? You're better than this!"

Sally throws Laurie's hand away dismissively, nothing that Laurie hasn't experienced before. "I knew you wouldn't understand…I need this! I deserve this!"

"Listen yourself! You sound like a child!" Laurie stops herself from thinking that she sounds more like her mother right now. "You need to leave me with me right-now."

"And do what? I don't want to live in a retirement community with only memories to keep me company! I love it here! They keep me alive in more ways one!"

"I'm sure."

"Don't you judge me…I earn my own money, lots of it. I own an apartment just three blocks away, and I have the love and respect of my fans."

"And did you earn all that in the ring mother?"

Laurie is immediately slapped hard in the face and the crowd cheers. Laurie covers her face, it actually hurt.

"You will respect me."

"Yes mother." Laurie punches her hard in the face and watches with some satisfaction as her mother falls to her feet. But Laurie feels anxious as the crowd gasps and falls silent all at once; as if they've never seen her mother get hurt before.

Her mother looks at her angrily. And as she slowly stands up, the crowd claps with anticipation.

"That's enough mother, we're leaving!" Laurie points at her, trying to gain dominance. But instead she watches her mother slowly go into a fighting stance with a grin, flexing the muscles on her arms and chest.

The announcer yells, "Are we looking at a Silk versus Silk battle?"

"Fine." Laurie goes into her fighting stance. If she needs to beat some sense into her mother, she will.

"That's my girl."

The announcer yells, "Whoa! Yes we are!"

As the crowd cheers loudly, Laurie's leather gloves stretches as her fists tenses.

The announcer yells, "Ok…is everyone ready? 3…"

The audience stands up and claps their hands.

"…2…"

The audience stomp their feet, the noise rattles in Laurie's ears.

"…1…"

As she exchanges long concentrated looks with her mother, she knows it's confirming only one thing: this fight will get bloody.

"Fight!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Fight

They immediately start exchanging punches and kicks as the audience cheer on. Laurie knew her mother was a good fighter, but the fact that she is taking her best body punches like a three hundred pound punching bag is impressive.

But Laurie is also surprised with a solid kick to the stomach that puts her flat on her back. "Holy…shit."

Laurie expects her mother to follow up with more punishment, but instead she sees her waving to the adoring crowd that his cheering her on. Her mother is blowing them kisses like she won a beauty contest.

"Whatever." Laurie gets up with a flip and catches her mother off guard with a right hook to the face; it was like getting therapy to see her mother taken down a notch. "I have to admit to myself, I don't feel all that bad about doing that."

They go at it, this time exchanging blow for blow. As her mother bobs and weaves, Laurie tries to find more weak points. Laurie is jumping around and doing drop kicks deep into her mother chest but her mother keeps coming. Laurie tries to put her in a hold but she easily breaks, giving her barely any time to avoid her mother's follow up attacks.

Laurie continues her assault hitting her mother at her sides, only hitting solid flesh hidden under her soft looking skin.

But Laurie gets a lucky punch to her mother's face; it knocks back a few steps and makes her lips bleed. Watching her mother shake her head, Laurie understands her mother's weak spot but she hopes her fists can handle it; her mother's jaw is made of anything but glass.

Laurie stays on her toes when her mother yells and releases the dogs of war, called her fists, in a fury. From her loose teeth, Laurie's learns to back away and threat her mother like an actual threat and then kicks her in the face.

Her mother falls to ground. Laurie watches with dread as her mother slowly sits up, wiping the blood from her nose and wiping it on her costume.

"Are we done here? I got range on you, I'm more modern in my fighting style, and I'm faster than you."

"But your defense is lacking, you just don't know it yet. So why should I'm give up? I'm stronger than you and dangerous up close."

"Because you are slow as shit."

They share a smile of respect. Sally continues, "Looks like we're just getting started."

Laurie throws a few punches; the only problem is that her mother's face isn't there to connect with her fists. Her mother bobs and weaves close enough to deliver an uppercut that makes Laurie almost bite her tongue as she's pushed a few steps back from the force of the blow.

Spitting out the pool of blood from her mouth, Laurie is angered by her mother's sly grin and does a leaping punch that connects to her face, followed by spinning kick to her face that undoes several pins and a foam roller on the right side of her mother's hair.

Laurie throws a haymaker punch, but is caught off guard when her mother spins around her, lifts her up, and slams her unto the floor. Laurie's head and back hits the cement floor at the same time.

They both look at each other, breathing hard, but it's her mother that gets up first and moves to her. "I've learned classic wrestling moves from the Hooded Justice himself." She punches Laurie in the face. "I helped started the original Minuteman! Me!" She punches Laurie in the face again.

"Then you gave it up because you became a mother," Laurie relies as her mother raises her hand to strike her again.

Laurie watches her mother struggle with words and debating if she wanted to punch her or not. Laurie wanted to take the opportunity to head butt her mother, but the chance was taken away when her mother moves her head to her and wraps her still loving arms around her bruised head.

Laurie thinks she hears her mother crying, but she's so fuzzy she's not sure. Laurie is sure that the cheering has stopped and has been partially replaced by a few boos. Her mother's fan base is about to get small real fast and Laurie can give two shits about them. In fact, the way she feels right now, they can go fuck themselves.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - The Jones

Laurie looks over her neck in her bathroom mirror; it's still showing a few black and blue marks that her mother left. Laurie takes out the body makeup tube from the cabinet and applies it on her, covering up the bruises. She stops when she hears her mother's crying in the guest room. Laurie puts the tube back, dries her hands on the face towel, and throws the towel in the hamper when she walks out.

As she walks closer to the guest room the crying get louder, Laurie feels her stomach twinge, but she's getting use to the feeling for the past week; Laurie has been checking on her at nights to make sure she doesn't go back to her fans in the middle of the night or is doing research on doctors for a face lift.

Laurie walks in and sees her mother, sitting down in front of a mirror, and blowing into a tissue as her hands shakes uncontrollable. Laurie's heart sinks as her mother watches herself sadly in the mirror, counting the wrinkles that are slowly reappearing on her pale skin. A sad reminder that they all have a timetable to face, every hero is replaceable.

Laurie walks closer as her mother touches the white hairs on her head. "Mother, are you ok?"

When her mother starts pulling the hairs out, Laurie walks to her and holds her mother's trembling hands. Laurie puts her head on her mother's shoulder as her mother continues crying.

"Mother, don't!"

"Leave me alone!"

"Mother, stop it!"

Laurie feels her mother's hands stop shaking, they may still argue but her mother at least respects her authority.

"I…I…felt like a hero again."

Laurie sighs and kisses her on the cheek. People looked to her mother whose popularity and symbol of power was based on how glamorous she was, but Laurie is happy that losing that aspect of her life makes her a more balanced person if she can handle the process.

Laurie whispers, "I know what you gave up…again, but I'm here for you now. You're not alone this time mom."

She hugs her mother tightly, smiling when her mother holds her arms with a mother's gentle touch.


End file.
